5-6

It was a short trip from the park to getting our pokemon inspected and registered to us at the pokemon center. At around four in the afternoon Dixie and I split up with a plan to meet at Dixie's home where we'd stay the night before officially leaving on the journey the next day. She still had to run and get a few bits and bobs form the store and I had to go clean out my hotel room. When we parted it was with a happy skip in our step and anticipation for what the future would bring.

The manic energy carried me home quickly and set me about throwing stuff in my TARDIS-like backpack while bellowing "Moving On Up" at the top of my lungs and with no regard for my neighbors. It took me only a few seconds to dump all my worldly possessions into the bag when reality seized my throat and choked the joy out of me.

It only took me seconds to pack all my worldly possession. That was it. I had a few outfits, some camping supplies, and that was all. I had no transportation and no home.

The tiny hotel room had been the closest thing I'd had other than the hospital room before it. My stomach roiled and it became so damn hard to breath. Even in the depths of my drug addiction, when it was bad, I had never let myself get to the point of being homeless. I had been held at gunpoint at an ATM by a drug dealer to pay him back his money, but I never once was without a roof to lay under.

I broke down. It was a long time coming. I hadn't really had the chance in the hospital, at least not really. There was always a nurse nearby or another patient that the pride of not crying in front of other people allowed me to hold off the breakdown. Those were all gone now and I let my grief take over, just for a little while and sat on the floor in the corner of the room and sobbed. Sometime into it, I had no idea how much time passed, Kernel apparently let itself out of its pokeball. I looked through blurry stinging eyes and saw the fire-chicken look up at me with a cocked head.

Then it chirped at me and I scooped him up into my arms and held him close to my chest. The little torchic wiggling closer into the embrace and didn't try to get free. He wasn't just a chicken, he wanted to comfort me. Most pokemon might be just animals with funny powers, but they had been companions, allies, and friends to humans for hundreds of years. You could just call it breeding sociable behaviors into a species in order to make them easier to train.

I preferred to think that after generations and generations of love and friendship, it rubbed off and became something vital.

I might have nothing, but I did have my little chicken, my partner, my pokemon. The thought helped, it set me up on the path of coming back to myself, but I needed a bit more time. I sat there a little longer and sniffling to myself as I rubbed my face into Kernel's ridiculously fluffy feathers.

"Sara?" A kind woman's voice asked.

I flinched at the sudden voice and smacked my head into the wall behind me, leading to a round of violent cursing before registering who had invaded my room.

"Professor Sago?" I blinked as I beheld the dark-skinned woman before me and my brain began working enough to add more to that. "What are you doing here?"

"I was hoping to wish you well before you headed off on your journey. I could sense the strong emotion in the room and let myself in. Sorry for the intrusion." She said in way that made me quite sure she was sorry in that way where a person recognize someone might have good reason to take offence, but they'd do the same action again. That is, not sorry, but not malicious either.

"Oh. Thanks, uh, I'm good- I was just-" My mind searched to find a reason not to tell a therapist that could throw me in a looney bin that I felt like my world was collapsing round me for a while. I needed her to let me walk off with the living flame thrower and go unsupervised into the woods after all. "How long were you standing there?"

"Not too long." She promised with a composed smile.

"Great answer. Very subjective." I complimented.

The professor let out a small laugh and shook her head. "So, you wanna tell me what's wrong? Did you remember something of what happened?"

"No. Nothing like that." I reluctantly confessed and took a deep breath. "I just...it hit me that I don't really have anything to my name and I'm kind of alone in the world right now."

Kernel decided he had enough of cuddling and wiggled himself free so that he could groom his ruffled and wet feathers. Apparently, I had gotten myself together enough that I didn't need his attention anymore.

"Sara, that's perfectly understandable. Your life has changed drastically and you're adapting. Everyone needs a good cry sometimes. I've gone home and cried because I didn't get the results I wanted and the printer was being stupid. It's okay to not always be happy and functional." The professor promised me.

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair and gave a nod of my head. She was right and I needed to express something far more important.

"Hey, I took some things for granted, but you've really gone out on a limb here for me. I really want you to know how much I appreciate that."

"Oh, that's nothing, I'm just making sure you can still help with my research and-"

"No, it's more than that. You've housed me, gave me the money for food and some clothes. You're sponsoring me for an opportunity in my own Pokemon Journey. You gave me a proper dimensional folding bag!"

"It's not dimensional folding, it's-"

"Not the point! All that stuff is expensive, and you've been seeing to all of it and haven't expected much from me in return. I'm not blind to how much I owe you with this."

Sago stared at me for a few short beats before nodding. "Yes, I have invested a lot in you, but it's not quite as much as you're thinking. I don't use the bag anymore and I was going to get rid of it anyways. Your position in the Journey didn't really cost me anything since I'm allowed to recommend several people to join for free each year. As for the room, this is actually a hotel kept on hold for the Pokemon League to use as it needs. Really the most expensive thing for me personally has been paying for your food bills, that's been out of pocket."

"Oh." I thought it over for a few moments and everything she said did make a certain amount of sense, though there was one thing that stuck out to me. "You're still putting your name on me. If things go south because of me, your name is going to get the splash back."

"True," Sago acknowledged with a nod, "but so will the glory. You have a good head on your shoulders and you have a passion for pokemon. I hate waste and you not having this opportunity would be such a waste it offends me. I believe you can do a lot of good in the world as an official League Trainer."

That sure was a lot of confidence in someone that the Professor seemed pretty sure was insane. I never did convince her I was from another world. Granted, I never tried particularly hard to either.

"Well...thanks." I said as I scrambled to stand up from the floor; I even managed it without making a bunch of grunting and groaning sounds.

"You're welcome." She replied before doing the opposite of me to squat down towards Kernel. "And congratulations on this handsome fella."

Kernel glanced up at her to give a happy trill before he returned to preening himself. He had to look his best after all.

"Thanks. Though now that I have my starter, I was wondering if you had any suggestions for what I should do for building my team? I got this whole Normal Energy going on, so..."

"You should focus on functionality, though truthfully what that looks like is up to you. If you get pokemon of all the same type or taxonomy it will be cheaper to feed them since you can just keep their food in bulk. It can be a pain to keep up with a full teams dietary requirements. You can also focus on not getting anything too big or doesn't eat too much to save you on costs. Torchic is a great choice on that front since it's omniverous and has a wide range of diet options, you'll just need to make sure you supplement a bit with proper fire type vitamins."

I gave a nod. That was something Dixie had helped me realize. As much as I liked pokemon like snorlax and copperajah they likely wouldn't be anything I could afford to feed any time soon.

"Alternatively, you can make sure that your pokemon fit into roles in your team. Torchic's evolution line is one great for aggression and attacking enemies relentlessly, so you want to make sure you have one that is good at defense and helping to protect you or any civilians you might find in dangerous situations. Another pokemon that can hold an enemy pokemon down and let you tag and release it." She continued.

"Oh. That makes sense." It was like forming a Dungeons and Dragon's party. You needed a group with a variety of moves for different situations, otherwise you'll find your party stone walled by something simple like a slide puzzle or a simple magical switch. Right person for the right job. Though that did leave one question for me. "So would there be any particular pokemon that could benefit from my having Normal Energy?"

"Honestly, I have no idea." Professor Sago admitted. "No one has had it before, as far as we know. I spent years with my pokemon to be able to harness Psychic Type Energy and it has helped tremendously."

"Don't have to get up and reach for the remote?" I joked.

"More like being able to connect my mind to my pokemon and getting them to understand what I want easier, and for me to understand them." She paused before admitting, "Though the remote thing is quite handy too."

"So all this normal energy in me can do...what?" I asked as I reached out for Kernel. He let me pick him up and place him in my arms with little trouble and I quickly began to pet and smooth his feathers.

"That's something I had hoped you'd join me for. There was a limit to what I could test with you at the hospital. I want you to come to my lab and let me do some more things that couldn't be done at the hospital. Could I get you to come by?" Professor Sago asked hopefully.

"Sure, like I said, I owe you a lot. Why didn't you ask earlier though?"

"Ethical concern." Professor Sago said with a shrug. "I couldn't in good conscious have you agree to the experimentation when I was your only source of any future. You needed to agree for reasons besides you just being concerned I'll remove my support if you said no."

"Professor," I began with a laugh, "you're one of the good ones."

"Thank you! I try to be. Now, lets be off to do some tests, hm?" She asked as she motioned to the door.

"Wait, now?" I asked as I glanced out towards the window. There was still sunlight, but it was a near thing.

"No time like the present!" She said happily and began walking to the door with the clear implication that I follow.

"I'm supposed to be going to Dixie's house tonight. I was gonna-" I began as I dutifully followed after her, grabbing my bag as I went.

"I'll drop you off after we're done." She interrupted. "You'll probably get there faster this way than if you were walking and taking the bus."

"So...they're short tests?" I asked hesitantly. I didn't particularly feel like being poked and prodded, but I was leaving the next day, so it would make sense to go ahead and get it done now.

"Won't take long at all. An hour total at the most." She promised as we got to the door and I slowed and hesitated. My eyes still hurt from crying and I didn't particular feel like going out.

"I dunno, we could maybe start tom-"

"My lab has a few Galar ponyta by the way."

I opened the door and promptly walked out, "What are we waiting around here for, time is wasting!"

At that point, I practically dragged the professor to her car and was seated and buckled in before Sago even managed to open the car door. Soon enough we were pulling out and driving down the road when a thought occurred to me.

"Did you do all this nice stuff for me so I'd agree to be your test-subject without violating any ethics you hold yourself accountable to?" I asked.

The car was suddenly very quiet.

"Not JUST that, no." The professor admitted slowly.

Well, there were worse ways to manipulate people; besides, this way let me go pet a mother-fucking unicorn! Worth it.

xxxxxx

The car ride was uneventful as we drove through town; we made idle chatter, she seemed surprised when I told her that nothing of note really happened during the Starter Event, though I went on to mentioning how someone is wanting to write a puff piece about me. That seemed to make her smug for some reason, but I didn't push. Anything written would blow over by the time I got back in civilization; I was going to be in the middle of the woods for at least a week after tomorrow.

Then we started reaching the outskirts of town and close packed houses made way for homes with expansive yards and fields with plants growing strange fruit or grazing pokemon.

"Cows!" I exclaimed as a field of miltanks and tauros came into view.

I ignored the odd look that the Professor gave me and stared on in excitement as all manner of new and different pokemon flew by the window. None of the places were proper farms, but instead just small time operations for the person that wanted their food a little more natural, or even just liked having a hobby. It was the same as you would see in most cities back on Earth, but they weren't just animals.

They were pokemon.

The tauros would occasionally flick their tails hard enough to issue a crack in the air like a whip while they peered at the car with vacant eyes and vivillon flittered through the air around the field. Gardens saw roselia poke their heads out of flowering bushes only to retreat back in as a skitty dove in after it with a playful trill. I even spotted some kids having a pokemon battle in their back yard. So normal, but the mundane made fantastical.

"This is why I wanted you to be a Pokemon Trainer." Professor Sago's voice announced as we drove, shocking me from damn near pressing my face into the glass.

"Huh?" I asked intelligently.

"The wonder at which you look at the world. Pokemon are special to you and something to be awed. Even if that's only a result of the dissociation from the event that resulted in you being unconscious where we found you, it's still the single most important characteristic of a League Trainer."

"That can't be that rare." I said incredulously; it's not like there weren't people that excited about animals back in my world, and this world had pokemon matter even more than animals did back in mine.

"True, but that excitement while still having a good head on their shoulders and can still go out on their journey? That's more rare."

"Oh...well that might be true but-"

"Ah, we're here." Sago commented.

I sat up as we pulled into a long dirt driveway. The property had more acres of land than I could see at once, but the fields were dotted with all manner of pokemon. I had expected mostly psychics, but there were skiddo, numel, Galar zigzagoons, and even more pokemon that I didn't recognize!

But what arrested my attention was the rapidash. The white steed excitedly cantered along side the car and let out a whinny as it tossed its teal and purple mane in a glorious cascade that shone like diamonds in the dying light of the day. A unicorn. A real magical unicorn was right in front of me.

And it had a baby!

Struggling to keep up with the rapidash was a struggling ponyta that looked to be giving it's all to keep up with its more evolved form; tiny hooves pumping and fire burning in its eyes as it tried desperately to keep up. I fell in love instantly. The car pulled around to the front of a modest building that seemed to struggle to find a balance between home and business, but I ignored that as I piled out of the car and ran towards the fence where the two fairy horses were.

I found the fence surprisingly easy to hop over. I hadn't been good at hopping fences in more than a decade, but at that moment it was barely more difficult than a hop. I landed a good ten feet away from the two fairy-horses and I stayed in a crouch as I held one out out towards them in invention.

"Hello there! Aren't you two just the prettiest things!" I gushed at the two.

The rapidash gave a snort and ruffled its head before stamping with its hoof on the ground. I glanced out the corner of my eye to Professor Sago who looked on in curiosity, but didn't seem intent on interfering. I took her lack of reaction for approval and took a slow step forward and adopted my sweetest tone. "I want so bad to pet you! I always dreamed of having something like you two."

The rapidash stood its ground and regarded me with a reserved eye, but the ponyta's eyes and horn glowed briefly with energy and I felt the familiar brush of psychic energy on my mind. I accepted it immediately and did my best to feel out the touch myself, to understand the mind touching mine. It was muddled and I was frankly awful at it, but after the seconds passed the little ponyta suddenly perked up and practically bowled me over as it began to nuzzle at my face.

"Oof! My what a sweet-" I leaned my head to the side and down for a moment, "boy you are! Yes you are!" I gushed as I began to stroke his mane. It didn't feel like a horse's mane, but instead was a silky softness like that of rabbits fur but long and luxurious. "Oh...my god. You- you're just amazing!"

"It's really soft, right?" Professor Sago asked as she came to lean on the fence. The rapidash leaned into her and allowed her to pet it, meaning it was probably hers. Well, or it could just not like me because I just charged into its territory with very loud feelings and thoughts to the psychic type...yeah, probably not my smartest move ever.

"He's amazing! What's his name?" I asked as I scratched the horse's back and behind his ears, making the little thing almost vibrate in my touch.

"He hasn't got one yet. I have too many pokemon at the facility to name them all, plus I'm terrible at naming things, so he's just Ponyta for now." She said as she fished some oats out of a pocket for the rapidash.

"Oh, poor guy." I cooed at the little horse and got back to petting him. I continued to do so till the tiny horse was practically laying in my lap and Sago began kicking at me under the fence to get me to stand up and come with her to do my end of the bargain. I do so with much reluctance and groaning.

"Alright, I'm gonna go little guy. Thanks for letting me pet you!" I said kindly one last time as I turned and hopped back over the fence. There was an immediate cry behind me when I landed and I turned to see the tiny horse on its back legs and its front on the post between us clomping at the wood as it let out the saddest little whinny I ever did hear.

"Awww." My little heart melted as Professor Sago let out a laugh.

"It seems you made an impression." She noted as she put a hand on my back and directed me towards her lab.

"He had an effect on me too." I noted.

I decided that I needed to get me one of them. I wondered how much it would cost to get one?

4

The Professor's lab was both everything I expected and yet completely opposite. Technology was everywhere, all manner of flashing gizmos, blinking doodads, and humming whatchadoozits. However, the technology was much less smooth round future tech and far more blocky rattling tech from the 80's that were held together with hopes and dreams. That wasn't to say the machinery looked old by any means, just that aesthetics and presentability were clearly not held as important as function. In contrast, there were potted and vining plants spread all through the room, both the mundane and pokemon kind. In that same measure, stacks of rumpled papers scattered on most surfaces and walls and windows held equations that the papers apparently could not contain, but those papers were held down with crystals and stones while the windows and walls were decorated with colorful tapestries and dreamcatchers.

Two small two-legged cat humanoid pokemon rushed forward to greet the professor as she entered, brushing against the psychic woman and letting out small mews of greeting as they ignored my existence.

"No. I fed you just before I left." She said dismissively, and the two pokemon turned their attention towards gaining my favor. I let out a small laugh as I bent down to pet them. They let me get two solid pets in before they leadingly walked towards a clearly empty food dish. I felt a pair of minds brush up against my own, a nudging insistence that felt vastly different from my experience with the Professor's Xatu. It was more forward, uncaring of politeness, and felt all together more alien. The presence did not use words and even presented a concept of food and eating that I could only barely recognize as such. I marveled momentarily at the sensation and how fundamentally different the minds that touched mine felt.

In some ways, it was a revelation. This creature, while psychic, displayed a mind to me so fundamentally different than that of a human's that knew in that moment I could never be completely certain what a Pokémon would do. It was fascinating.

"Sorry, I don't have any food on me." I said to the two Indeedee. The two psychic cats promptly began ignoring my existence and went off to find somewhere in the sunlight to rest. Truly, cats were universal.

"Don't mind them. They're just grumpy because I started them on a diet; they were getting too chunky." I took a glance at the Pokemon and frowned. They where hardly fat, just comfortably fluffy! "Come on in. Sit down on that chair while I start up the machine." The professor said as she walked over to a big computer. The screen wasn't big, the computer itself took up most of the wall and displayed on a screen that was maybe thirty inches.

"Machine?" I asked as I walked over to the chair. The thing had clearly been stolen from some poor dentist's office, as it was the only place I'd seen it's kind, though the chair had managed to have some some blocky control panel of some sort welded onto it. Across from the the chair sat a blocky machine with exposed insides that had a single protruding appendage that ended on a menacing rod with a glowing red tip. "What is this machine going to do?" I asked nervously.

"It's going to give me a specific number measurement of your Normal TE." Professor Sago stated as she began typing something into the computer.

"Didn't we do that at the hospital?" I looked at the glowing red tip with distrust before glancing at the totally-not-a-stolen-dentist-chair and checking for any bloodstains.

"No. The hospital equipment can essentially only give a binary. Either the energy is there or it's not there and that's the end of the story. I had to personally invent this piece of machinery to get a decent measurement. I'm confident that soon I'll be able to shrink it down and make a portable version, but this has to do for now." The dark skinned woman stated as she grabbed a coffee cup and took a sip of what had to be stagnant room-temperature coffee. She didn't even seem to notice.

This woman was clearly some sort of abomination and should not be trusted.

"Okay, so...how does this machine get that information?"

"It fires off a lot of low level wide spectrum TE at what it's pointing at and detects the interaction and how strong it is. The process is really-" The Professor's word's died as she turned around and saw me still standing next to the chair. "Is there a problem?"

"You don't see it?" I said while raising a disbelieving eyebrow as I gestured to the chair and machine.

"See what?"

"Professor...this is some real supervillain shit." My gesturing grew more emphatic.

"It is?" She asked in the manner that suggested the issue was less to do with my point, and for more about wondering what the hell my statement was supposed to mean in the first place.

"It's a dentist chair and a scary laser!" I threw my hands up in the air. "Very Saturday Morning Cartoon villain, or even what the super spy gets put in as the villain monologs about his plan. It screams menace!"

"Oh...I guess I can see that." The Professor stated with a grimace and a ghost of an expression that was the closest thing I'd seen the woman be to bashful yet. "I promise it's safe though. I've tried it on myself as well as other TE Adepts that have volunteered. It's perfectly safe?"

My eyes narrowed, "And no pain?"

"Some light itching, that's it; promise." She stated as she drew her finger over her chest in a cross.

"Fine," I grunted before hopping into the chair. It wasn't the most comfortable chair of someone of my build, but it functioned nonetheless.

"Great! Test commencing." The Professor stated as she pressed a button and the machine hummed to life. The tip of the machine glowed brighter and began to rapidly shift colors in a kaleidoscope of dancing light. The whine of the machine mounted higher and higher as it captivated me, shifting colors rapidly. Red, blue, green, purple, pink, orange- all at once, as the colors continued to go through a loop it connected what I was looking at. Each color represented another typing! The cascading and rippling of every single color of Pokemon Type Energy danced forth from the tip and something tickled at the back of my brain of the sensation being oh so familiar. The intensity of the familiar feeling and the light rose to a crescendo as the whine of the machine and its fans kicked into overdrive, a mounting feeling rose with it. I knew this. This was...familiar. There was something-

-AM CERTAIN OF YOU.

A fragment of a feeling flashed before my eyes. I had no idea what it was, but I felt my mind chase after the emotion. Fear, excitement, and contentment in a bizarre cocktail that felt extremely important. Abruptly, the machine's whine stopped and the colors stopped flashing, and as the colors faded.

I blinked, trying to remember my train of though. I felt like had a really good idea and that had some good feeling to it, but as I reached for it, the memory slipped through my grasp.

Meh, if it was important or that good it'd come back.

The sound of a coffee cup falling to the floor and shattering into ceramic shards broke me from my internal investigation. Sago was staring at her little screen, mouth agape and heedless of the death of her dishware.

"Hey, Doc? You good?" I asked.

I got no response as the woman continued to stare at the screen like it was her whole world and ignored my prompting.

"Well, that's not at all terrifying," I commented as I stood up and raised my voice. "Professor! Do I have Poke-Cancer or-"

"Magnificent!" The Professor yelled as she shot upright and threw her arms out to either side. "The impossible made real, right before my eyes!"

"Uh-" I started, before the Professor suddenly rushed me and grabbed hold of my shoulders.

"Your numbers! They are over one hundred seventy!" The Professor stated emphatically.

"Wow, one hundred seventy!" I yelled excitedly, matching the professor's energy.

"I know! Ugh, the upset for the Scientific Journal of Pokemon Relations is going to go insane!" The 45-year-old woman stated as she actually hopped in place.

"Oh totally!" I agreed while hopping along with her.

"This is potentially a whole new field of study!"

"Think of all the grant money!" I stated excitedly.

"Yeah, sure." The professor said dismissively, "Think instead of all the science! Over one-seventy! Extraordinary!" The professor continued to glow but seemed to be coming down from her emotional high.

"Yeah! One seventy!" I agreed again and watched as the mood in the room mostly stabilized, making me comfortable with my follow-up. "That's all great! The fuck does it mean?"

"It's your TE reading!" The woman said happily before she connected that she was not, in fact, talking to a colleague but instead, a woman who had recently been treated for brain damage. "Type Energy is the energy that allows pokemon to circumvent the natural rules of the universe by tapping into a plane of energy that raises them beyond the boundary of purely physical beings."

Pokemon were...energy beings inhabiting a physical shell? Did that mean humans weren't? What did that say about the human soul? Did it exist and instead pokemon were the only things truly with a soul while we were husks, just ambling about spreading our taint and destruction-

"Your readings are three times higher than any reading I've ever gotten before!" She continued.

"Holy shit, I'm awesome!" I stated happily. I now had an answer! I was at least three times better than everyone else. Take that Mrs Wallace, I did amount to something. "How does that stack to pokemon?"

"You are only slightly weaker than a newborn Rattata!" She stated excitedly.

"Oh." I said, excitement draining.

"Don't look like that. This is still an astounding discovery! It's suspected there are others with more TE than this, such as a particular Gym Leader in another nation who never picks up her damn phone, but of people that have consented to a reading, you by far have the highest amount!"

So still probably not even the highest amount in a human. Damn, you're still right Mrs. Wallace, but stay on watch! I'm close to proving you wrong.

"Now, the question is if the reading goes up or down in the coming days. I had expected to have a slow trend downward, but if this is sticking around then that's potentially groundbreaking research. We'll need to continue to gain readings at least once a week to be sure, and I need to try and get a Technical Room up and running."

Weekly?

"Um, Professor. I'm leaving on my journey. I can't come by weekly."

The professor looked lost for words for a moment, mouth opening and closing as a contrite look ghosted her expression. My guard came up as my mind repeated the same thing over and over again an endless loop of 'Please don't ask me'. I owed much to the Professor; too much. She wanted to ask me to stay, to stall my journey, the very same journey that was only possible because of her endorsement.

"It would only be for a year. We don't know of the TE is going to start fading as time goes by. This could be a very narrow field of opportunity. I'll sponsor you again next year."

She asked me.

It wasn't a bad fate, the Professor's company was enjoyable and there were all manner of Pokemon on the property that I could spend time with and I could spend that time honing my understanding on the care of Pokemon and battling. I was far from fit and able to walk for long periods of time too, and it would give me time to become more physically fit. Hell, I could probably make sure the Professor paid me a pretty penny so I had better starting cash for the journey too.

But I didn't WANT to. I looked away from the Professor's pleading eyes and to the Indeedee that lay sunning on the floor.

"No. I'm going on my journey. If we have a fight sometime this year you might decide not to sponsor me, I could end up having health complications, and settling down and getting an apartment and the things of life would make it harder and more expensive to travel and maintain a home. I already have a travel companion counting on me. I appreciate what you've done for me but I just can't."

The room went silent except for the whirling of the fans on the computer and a buzz of electricity in the air. I maintained my gaze, not daring to look at the Professor until finally a sound broke the background noise.

A sigh. I looked up to a reluctant Professor.

"It was unfair to ask that of you. I'm sorry."

Ice cold relief flooded and my body bobbed mounted tension explosively left me.

"However," the tanned woman began and I tensed again, "there is no reason that we can't both get what we want."

"Uh, I can't exactly be coming back here every week when I'm going to be going into some deeper parts of the wilderness for long stretches of time." I pointed out.

The professor waved a dismissive hand. "I have psychic types that can teleport me great distances in a blink, it's not that hard to pick you up and then return you."

"True, but how will you know how to find me if I'm off somewhere remote. Can you just look at a Kadabara and go 'take me to Sara' and snap your fingers and you pop up next to me?" I doubted that Pokemon teleporting could be so precise or no criminal would ever manage to evade the law.

"No, but if you send me the occasional text of your location, I can get in the general area." She stated confidently.

"And then what? You wonder around until you manage to find me?"

"I could- hm" The Professor stopped and conflict crossed her face before she began pacing the floor, a hand on her chin and storm clouds in her eyes. This was not a woman that was confused, this was a woman that had an answer and didn't much care for it. To me, there appeared to be an obvious solution here, and I could understand her reluctance.

"You could~" I said leadingly.

"I could give you a Pokemon to help the process along." The Professor agreed.

I knew it!

"You could just give me a Pokemon with teleport! That way I could come back and return really quick." I stated excitedly.

"No, you're on your journey and I can't give you something too powerful or trained without your competitors crying foul." She said with a shake of her head.

"What about just like Ralts then, or an Abra? They know teleport." And just so happened to be Pokemon that featured heavily in my teams when I played a Pokemon game.

"They can't teleport far enough, not to mention that a young Psycic like that won't be able to understand you well enough to follow directions. And they definitely wouldn't be able to teleport you back." The woman took off her glasses and massaged the bridge of her nose. "There is, however, another option."

"Uh huh?" I asked excitedly, wide grin firmly in place.

"A Galarian Rapidash can sense their young-"

The rest of the sentence didn't get out of her mouth before my yell of triumph cut her off "YEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS."